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“Digital innovation, youthful fun and connectedness”

“A case study of South Africa’s MXit” by Herman Heunis. “Digital innovation, youthful fun and connectedness”. Free = Money?. Can free products generate a revenue stream? A business model that gives away content and still makes money! MXit Case Study. MXit.

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“Digital innovation, youthful fun and connectedness”

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  1. “A case study of South Africa’s MXit” by Herman Heunis “Digital innovation, youthful fun and connectedness”

  2. Free = Money? • Can free products generate a revenue stream? • A business model that gives away content and still makes money! • MXit Case Study

  3. MXit • “MXit is a FREE online mobile instant messenger and social network” (http://mxit.com/). • “MXit works on close to 3000 mobile handsets, including Java, Android, iPhone, BlackBerry, Nokia, and Windows Mobile” (http://mxit.com/).

  4. History • MXit started out as a paid for mobile instant messaging (IM) service in January 2005 (Heunis, 2010:50). • Monthly subscription fee of R15 (Heunis, 2010). • This business model was a FAILURE! • May 2005 MXit was re-launched as a free service (Heunis, 2010).

  5. Growth • Following the re-launch MXit had exponential growth (Heunis, 2010). • 43 million registered users in more than 120 countries (Vecchiatto, 2011). • Currently Africa’s largest mobile social networking service (Vecchiatto, 2011).

  6. How Does MXit Make Money? • Advertising • Classifieds • Surveys • Entertainment • Micro Transactions (Heuins, 2010).

  7. Other Services • Education • TV interaction • Counselling (Heuins, 2010).

  8. MXit Sold for R500 Million! • Alan Knott-Craig Jnr purchased MXit from Herman Heunis and Naspers in September 2011 (Fairweather, 2011).

  9. Future of MXit? • Competition from smartphones? (Fairweather, 2011) • Heavy media criticism (Booysen, 2011 & SAPA, 2011).

  10. Reference List: • Booysen, J. 2011. “How to deal with dark side of technology”. [Online]. Accessed at: http://www.iol.co.za/scitech/technology/internet/how-to-deal-with-dark-side-of-technology-1.1153065 on 18 October 2011. • Fairweather, A. 2011. “Is MXit worth the money?”. [Online]. Accessed at: http://mg.co.za/article/2011-09-28-is-mxit-worth-the-money on 18 October 2011. • Heunis, H. 2010. “Digital innovation, youthful fun and connectedness – A case study of South Africa’s MXit” in Mdlongwa, F. & Letlhaku, M. (eds)2010. “Harnessing Africa’s Digital Future”. Cape Town: Meta Digital. • MXit. 2011. [Online]. Accessed at: http://mxit.com/ on 18 October 2011. • SAPA. 2011. “MXit eats into homework time” [Online]. Accessed at: http://www.news24.com/SciTech/News/MXit-eats-into-homework-time-20111011 on 18 October 2011. • Vecchiatto, P. 2011. “Mxit changes hands for R500m”. [Online]. Accessed at: http://www.timeslive.co.za/scitech/2011/09/23/mxit-changes-hands-for-r500m on 18 October 2011.

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